Published on Feb 17, 2016On Feb. 1, 2016, the pressure vessel for an Orion spacecraft arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility operated by Space Florida at Kennedy. Late in 2018, this spacecraft will lift off atop NASA's Space Launch System rocket on the vehicle's maiden voyage.

Engineers at Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s facility near Denver are assessing a new acoustic test method on the space-flown Orion crew module.

Direct Field Acoustic testing uses more than 1,500 customized, high-energy speakers configured in a circle around the vehicle. This test simulates the intense acoustic loads Orion will experience during launch and ascent on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. If this test method passes all necessary evaluations it will be used to verify Orion’s ability to withstand SLS acoustic loads during its next mission, Exploration Mission-1.

Direct Field Acoustic (DFA) Testing was successfully completed on the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) Crew Module (CM) at the Lockheed-Martin (LM) Waterton Reverberant Acoustic Lab (RAL). DFA Testing is an alternative method for spacecraft module acoustic qualification and acceptance verification that is being investigated for use in the Orion program. Its portability would allow testing at KSC and eliminate the transportation risks and associated cost and schedule of performing this verification activity off-site. Two configurations were tested; one representing the future reverberant acoustic comparison test and one representing the future configuration for Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) CM. A mock-up of the Service Module (SM) without the fairings will also be tested to gather volumetric data to decide viability of performing DFA Testing on the Static Test Article (STA) SM in the 2016 Fall. Data will be used to develop predictive algorithms for future tests.

Published on Mar 15, 2016An international team of engineers deployed an Orion solar array wing at NASA Glenn’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio on Feb. 29. The deployment of the 24-foot wing qualification model was an important first step in verifying Orion’s power system for the spacecraft’s first flight atop the agency’s Space Launch System rocket. The mission, known as Exploration Mission-1 or EM-1, will venture tens of thousands of miles beyond the moon.

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, engineer Heather Paul and astronaut Chris Cassidy put on spacesuits to test out the next generation controller for the Orion spacecraft – NASA’s deep space vehicle that will take humans on the #JourneyToMars.

The testing is providing data teams will use to make any adjustments needed to ensure future Orion crews can interact appropriately with the spacecraft’s control system when they’re inside their spacesuits during deep space missions.

Published on Apr 8, 2016APRIL 7, 2016 – Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, kicked off a series of nine drop tests of a representative Orion crew capsule with crash test dummies inside to understand what the spacecraft and astronauts may experience when landing in the Pacific Ocean after deep-space missions.

The high-fidelity capsule, coupled with the heat shield from Orion's first flight in space, was hoisted approximately 16 feet (4.9 meters) above the water and vertically dropped into Langley’s 20-foot-deep (6.1 meters) Hydro Impact Basin.

The crash test dummies were instrumented to provide data and secured inside the capsule to help provide information engineers need to ensure astronauts will be protected from injury during splashdown.

Each test in the series simulates different scenarios for Orion’s parachute-assisted landings, wind conditions, velocities and wave heights the spacecraft may experience when touching down in the ocean.

Engineers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida recently conducted a series of pressure tests of the Orion pressure vessel. Orion is the NASA spacecraft that will send astronauts to deep space destinations, including on the journey to Mars. The tests confirmed that the weld points of the underlying structure will contain and protect astronauts during the launch, in-space, re-entry and landing phases on the Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), when the spacecraft performs its first uncrewed test flight atop the Space Launch System rocket.

The Orion pressure vessel contains the atmosphere that a crew would breathe during a mission. It also will provide living and working space for the crew, and withstand the loads and forces experienced during launch and landing.

In late April, Orion was lifted by crane from its assembly and tooling stand and moved to a test stand inside the proof pressure cell. The assembly and tooling stand is called the birdcage because it closely resembles a birdcage, but on a much larger scale.

To prepare for the test, technicians attached hundreds of strain gauges to the interior and exterior surfaces of the vehicle. The strain gauges were attached to provide real time data to the analysts monitoring the changes during the pressurization. The analysts were located in the control room next to the pressure cell. The large doors were closed and sealed and Orion was pressurized to over the maximum pressure it is expected to encounter on orbit.

Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the Orion crew module, ran the test at incremental steps over two days to reach the maximum pressure. During each step, the team pressurized the chamber and then evaluated the data to identify changes for the next test parameter. The results revealed the workmanship of the crew module pressure vessel welds and how the welds reacted to the stresses from the pressurization.

“We are very pleased with the performance of the spacecraft during proof pressure testing,” said Scott Wilson, NASA manager of production operations for the Orion Program. “The successful completion of this test represents another major step forward in our march toward completing the EM-1 spacecraft, and ultimately, our crewed missions to deep space.”

“It gives the team a lot of pride to see Orion coming together for EM-1,” said Ed Stanton, a systems engineer for Orion Production Operations in the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program.

Orion was tested inside the proof pressure cell in the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building. After being moved back to the birdcage assembly stand, technicians will begin the intricate work of attaching hundreds of brackets to the vessel’s exterior to hold the tubing for the vehicle’s hydraulics and other systems.

Future tests include a launch simulation and power on. Orion also will be sent to NASA Glenn Research Center’s Plum Brook Station facility in Sandusky, Ohio, for acoustics and vibration tests. The uncrewed Orion will be outfitted with most of the systems needed for a crewed mission.

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop will roar into space from Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B. EM-1 will send Orion on a path thousands of miles beyond the moon over a course of three weeks, farther into space than human spaceflight has ever travelled before. The spacecraft will return to Earth and safely splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. This mission will advance and validate capabilities required for human exploration of Mars.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. , May 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and NASA Orion team has successfully proof-pressure tested the Orion spacecraft's Exploration Mission -1 (EM-1) crew module. The crew module is the living quarters for astronauts and the backbone for many of Orion's systems such as propulsion, avionics and parachutes.

In order to certify the structural integrity of the crew module it was outfitted with approximately 850 instruments and subjected to 1.25 times the maximum pressure the capsule is expected to experience during its deep space missions. That means about 20 pounds per square inch of pressure was distributed over the entire inner surface of the spacecraft trying to burst it from within. As a next step, the team will use phased array technology to inspect all of the spacecraft's welds in order to ensure there are no defects.

Once the primary structure of the crew module has been verified, the team will begin the installation of secondary structures such as tubes, tanks and thrusters. Once those pieces are in place, the crew module will be moved into the clean room and the propulsion and environmental control and life support systems will be installed.

"Our experience building and flying Exploration Flight Test-1 has allowed us to improve the build and test process for the EM-1 crew module," said Mike Hawes , Lockheed Martin Orion vice president and program manager. "Across the program we are establishing efficiencies that will decrease the production time and cost of future Orion spacecraft."

During EM-1 Orion will be launched atop NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) for the first time. The test flight will send Orion into lunar distant retrograde orbit - a wide orbit around the moon that is farther from Earth than any human-rated spacecraft has ever traveled. The mission will last about three weeks and will certify the design and safety of Orion and SLS for future human-rated exploration missions.

Hmmm. Do we not have the technology to cast the pressure shell rather than weld it?

Casting is not a very good technique to use when you're dealing with items that are fracture-critical (like, say, pressure vessels). Objects that are cast will have microvoids from the shrinkage of the metal as it cools, and the grain structure of the resulting metal is not easily controlled, which means that the material properties of the resulting piece vary throughout the geometry. This leaves portions that are more brittle than others as well as unpredictable regions of residual stresses built up, none of which you want when your product HAS to work.

It's far better to start from a rolled blank or a forging and form it into shape before machining the final geometry from it.

Published on Jun 14, 2016A test version of the Orion spacecraft is pulled back like a pendulum and released, taking a dive into the 20-foot-deep Hydro Impact Basin at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz. -- Conducting an individual test can be an unbelievably complicated undertaking, particularly when dealing with an expensive one-of-a-kind system. Late June's test of the parachutes destined for use aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft is a case in point, for it involved a vast number of complex moving parts that had to mesh together in a precise, carefully planned and thought-out manner.

These included several aircraft flying out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, additional aircraft from Laguna Army Airfield, ground tracking stations at several points at Yuma Proving Ground, and an exceptionally wide variety, dozens, of technical experts.

The parachute system for Orion is a complex system of its own, composed of 11 different parachutes which operate to slow down the spacecraft and bring it to a safe earth landing. The system's three primary parachutes are made of tough nylon and are the size of football fields.

Though NASA has conducted 17 previous parachute drops at the proving ground, planners say each deployment is slightly different.

"The parachutes are packed under thousands of pounds of pressure. It takes over a week to pack a main parachute," said Koki Nachin, NASA chief engineer for the capsule parachute assembly system. "In the final qualification phase, which we are in now, we will demonstrate that the parachute system works as expected within the predicted range of performance."

According to Nachin, NASA plans for an unmanned Orion mission to go into lunar orbit in 2018, with the first astronaut flight occurring in 2022.

Ellen Ochoa, former astronaut and current director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, was on hand to witness what was to be the eighteenth drop at Yuma Proving Ground, but it was ultimately aborted due to an oxygen system problem aboard the C-17 aircraft carrying the parachutes and payload. ...